Running A Business Without Childcare: How To Make It Work

Running a business without childcare can pose unique challenges and may even feel impossible at times, especially if you’re a mom who doesn’t have access to reliable childcare. Whether you’re a mom-preneur by choice or even by necessity, managing work while also trying to manage little ones comes with a lot of challenges. From constant interruptions to unpredictable schedules, let’s unpack it all and find some tips and tricks that will work for you in managing everything all at once!

Embracing The Reality Of Running A Business Without Childcare

Firstly, we need to have realistic expectations for how this is going to go. Running a business without childcare is no walk in the park, but it is absolutely do-able. Keeping yourself in check and practicing some radical acceptance with your current situation will prevent you from feeling a lot of frustration and defeat.

Understand that your children will interrupt you- often! This is okay! Although I understand a lot of us are working hard on side hustles due to a necessity in this economy, your parenting roles and motherhood will always have to come first. Accept and expect that your children will interrupt you while you’re working, and be prepared emotionally for that. If you’re unable to get any work done during the day while you’re with them, you may need to shift your focus to working overnight or early in the morning to get everything done.

Create A Flexible Work Schedule That Fits With Mom Life

Personally, I don’t find that time blocking or organizing my tasks by time frame is useful when it comes to running a business without childcare. In the end, I find myself feeling defeated because I didn’t get things done in the time slot I had planned for. Really, I think the best way to plan your work as a mompreneur is to simply have a to-do list for each day. That way, it doesn’t matter when the tasks get done, but you know they need to be done before you go off to bed for the night.

I also highly encourage you to create a social media planner! It doesn’t need to be extravagant, but most entrepreneurial work involves social media marketing nowadays, so its important that you streamline your success and plan out what content you want to be posting each day. There are even some online paid programs you can subscribe to that will automatically post your content for you!

Maximize Independent Play Times And Nap Time For Work

Take advantage of any time when your kids are playing well independently, and especially take advantage of nap times! Nap time is truly when i get a large majority of my work done while runnning a business without childcare, and I would argue this time is critical to the success of my blog.

Setting your kids up with some open-ended play like arts and crafts or sensory bins is a wonderful way to buy yourself some time to work while they enjoy some creative independent play. Don’t stress about the mess that is made while you work; that is a problem that you can solve later, and the kids can help you clean it when the time comes!

Engaging Your Kids While You Handle Business Tasks

Setting up some age-appropriate activities for your children so that you can get some work done is crucial to the success of running a business without childcare. Consider keeping a special selection of toys set aside specifically for when you need to get work done, so that your kids are highly interested in these toys and are less likely to interrupt you.

If it’s just been one of those days and you’re really desperate to get things done, consider some educational screen time! Ms. Rachel is highly educational for toddlers, and she does a wonderful job keeping kids engaged and focused on her. Ms. Rachel even released a toy line, and some of those toys can be used to go along with the activities in her videos!

Before you sit down to work, set up a little charcuterie board for your toddler to graze on, so that you’re not interrupted with an urgency to cook or help with snacks! Make sure your toddler has a full sippy cup with some fresh juice or water as well!

Leverage Support From Family And Your Partner

First of all, if you are single-mommin, I see you! This economy is so tough for single moms, and I truly empathize with you. If you don’t have a partner that you can rely on, consider trading babysitting with a close friend! Find a friend that you trust wholeheartedly and ask them if they would be interested in “trading” babysitting days with you. One day you can take her kid, and another day she can take yours! It takes a village to raise kids, and sometimes we have to build our own village! That’s OK! If you’re struggling to make mom friends, I highly recommend the mom app called “peanut,” which is essentially a Tinder for making mom friends!

If you have a reliable partner or family member, reach out to them and express your need for more support. Sometimes our family members don’t actually realize we need some extra help because on the outside, it looks like we are holding things together so well. Communication is essential in this situation.

Giving Yourself Grace: Success Looks Different For Every Mom

I know a lot of these side hustles will promise you to get rich quick, or that it’ll be a simple process to begin making a lot of money. Please understand, there really is no fast and effortless way to make money. It will always take work and strategy to get there. Your path is going to look completely different from everyone else’s, and that’s okay! The key here is resiliency and persistence, even through those days when you feel like giving up! Hang in there, mama, you’re gonna make it!

Conclusion

All in all, it’s going to be a challenge running a business without childcare, but its not impossible. One thing about moms, is we really just make things work, especially when it comes to our kids and providing for them. Give yourself some grace and understand that your path will look dramatically different from everyone else’s, but still, if you persevere and push through, you will make it!